Europe’s biggest prison blockaded by guards on strike

Some 350 guards late Monday blockaded France’s Fleury-Mérogis prison, the largest in Europe, to protest recent inmate violence towards personnel and overcrowding.

Some 350 prison guards blocked access to the Fleury-Mérogis prison on April 10, 2017. Their signs read "The penitentiary is on fire" and "Overcrowded, understaffed, dangerous". AFP/Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

The guards, with protest signs in hand, blocked the only road leading to the prison some thirty kilometres south of Paris on Monday night.

They erected barricades with bits of wood and tires and set them on fire.

Police, armed with tear gas, dispersed the protestors and evacuated the area a few hours after the demonstration had begun.

Union leaders have organised what they call a “march for the forgotten of the republic” this Tuesday in the city of Fleury-Mérogis, before their meeting with national prison administrators later on in the day.

Overcrowded, understaffed

The unions representing the prison guards have demanded the hiring of more personnel, an extensive search of the prison, and the repeal of a law requiring guards to justify strip searching inmates.

The Fleury-Mérogis prison is at nearly 180 percent of its capacity, with some 4,500 inmates in a structure built to detain just less than 3,000.

Nearly 150 guard posts there remain unfilled, according to union leaders.

Violence between guards and inmates

Last Thursday, six guards were injured when they tried to break up a fight between prisoners.

“The situation has become untenable,” French press agency AFP cited union representative Olivier Legentil as saying, who added that Thursday’s violence “was the last straw”.

“The inmates are younger and younger, and more and more violent,” a guard wishing to remain anonymous told AFP. “If they don’t get what they want, when they want it, they hit the first guard that passes by.”

Overcrowding and understaffing has further exacerbated the violence, according to the source, who added that “there is one guard for every 100 prisoners”.

According to union leader Legentil, “not one week goes by without a guard being attacked at Fleury”.

He believes that the strike was called in response to the difficult conditions seen in “prisons throughout France, but especially in the greater Paris region, where we are perpetually understaffed.”